All the Arts, All the Time

Mark Grotjahn sues Dean Valentine for resale royalties

October 25, 2011 | 9:00
am

The 1976 California Resale Royalty Act, an unevenly publicized and rarely enforced law, has pitted artist against collector before, as artists have sought to collect the 5% of resale transactions promised them under the law. But a number of lawyers say they can't remember another time in recent years when an artist took a collector to court and the two didn't quickly settle.

Image: Mark Grotjahn's "Untitled (Blue Face Grotjahn)," 2005, which in 2008 sold for $1.217 million including a premium at Phillips de Pury, is the highest-priced work sold by Dean Valentine for which Grotjahn is seeking a royalty payment. Credit: Joshua White; image courtesy of the artist